Arsenic Calamity in India

Naturally occurring arsenic, as a water quality issue in South Asia, began to attract international attention in the early decade of the nineties, when widespread chronic arsenic poisoning cases became apparent in Bangladesh and later in West Bengal, India. Arsenic pollution in groundwater in this part of the subcontinent is a contentious issue. The scale of problem of arsenic contamination in groundwater is huge, and becomes complicated because of hydrogeochemical interactions arising from the groundwater exploitation. Long-term exposure to arsenic through drinking contaminated water resulting in a chronic arsenic poisoning. This book, therefore, provides salient water quality problems with special reference to arsenic and discusses human health implications and controls actions needed to protect the arsenic related health and productivity of the environment. With its systematic approach, the book will be of interest to not only postgraduate students of applied environmental and agriculture sciences, but also intended for researchers, academician and others actively involved in water quality studies.